Centre for Women in Business

Strengthening Strategy and Impact: Introducing the New CWB Advisory Board

At the Centre for Women in Business (CWB), we know that real progress in women’s entrepreneurship demands both visionary action and strategic guidance. That’s why we’ve re-established the CWB Advisory Board, an accomplished group of leaders who will provide independent insight, expert advice, and bold ideas to help shape our long-term direction. While not involved in daily operations, the Advisory Board plays a vital role in governance, advocacy, and amplifying our mission to support women entrepreneurs across Atlantic Canada and beyond.

Bethany Deshpande

Bethany is a fearless founder who turns big ideas into high-impact tech teams. In 2016, she launched SomaDetect, growing it to 30+ team members, monitoring tens of thousands of cows and massive data, while raising over $20 million. After eight exhilarating years as CEO, she now coaches and mentors high-potential tech startups. She earned her PhD/MSc in Biology from Université Laval and a BA/BEd in Math & Environmental Studies from York University. She serves on the board of the Canadian Agri-Food Automation & Intelligence Network. When she’s not stirring up innovation, you’ll find her rock climbing, hiking, belting out tunes, or hanging with family and friends.

Bethany believes that business should be accessible to all, and loves the work that CWB does for women in business.

Ola Williams, ACCA, MBA

Ola Williams (olawilliams.ca) is a serial entrepreneur, board advisor, finance executive and financial literacy advocate with over two decades of experience spanning finance, oil and gas, retail, technology, and consumer goods. She is the President of cornishvariety.ca. She is also the founder and CEO of WealthEd.ca, a firm dedicated to empowering professionals and entrepreneurs with the knowledge and habits to achieve lasting financial well-being.

A Certified Accountant, Ola served over a decade as Financial Controller at Savannah Energy Plc, where she led financial reporting, budgeting, and investment fundraising. She is also the author of Become Rich for the Price of Financial Literacy and the founder of two innovative ventures — Cashloop Technologies Inc. and Kinderoots Inc. Ola holds an MBA from the University of Warwick and is a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).

Ola joined the CWB Advisory Board as she sees her own journey reflected in the women CWB serves. As a woman, an immigrant, and a mother who has built businesses from the ground up, Ola understands how much courage, clarity, and support it takes to navigate entrepreneurship. Drawn to CWB’s dynamic team and vision of an inclusive ecosystem where women-led businesses can thrive, Ola hopes to bring a perspective grounded in real-world finance, boardroom strategy, and lived experience, helping ensure that more women have the tools, confidence, and opportunities to build enduring legacies of their own.

Nancy Foran

Nancy brings over 25 years of professional and executive experience to ESG Partners where she provides guidance to companies, investors, boards of directors and leadership teams as they incorporate ESG factors into strategies that create long-term, sustainable value. As a CPA, she effectively integrates ESG targets with financial goals.

With extensive local and international experience, she has worked with start-ups through to multinational organizations, investors, government and regulators, and has navigated regional, national and international complex, multi-stakeholder environments.

In addition to her professional qualifications, Nancy is also educated in the leading sustainability standards and frameworks including the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the climate-focused TCFD and is an “FSA Credential Level 2 candidate in ESG” with the IFRS Foundation.

Nancy believes strongly in giving back to the communities where she lives and works, sits on local and international boards, and provides mentorship and guidance to new and emerging businesses and their leaders.

Nancy is thrilled thrilled to be joining the CWB board where she can apply her work in strategy, sustainability, and inclusive innovation to support CWB’s mission of empowering women in business and leadership. Passionate about building inclusive, resilient economies and excited to contribute to CWB’s strategic growth and impact, Nancy believes supporting women to thrive in business strengthens our communities and drives meaningful change.

Sheila Nunn

For 25 years, Sheila Nunn was the co-owner of Halifax’s East Coast Language College (ECLC), an international language school and career college, where she held a variety of roles before becoming ECLC’s first CEO. ECLC sold to the Oxford International Education Group in 2021, where Sheila still works as a Senior Advisor for the multi-national company.

Sheila is a long -time member of the CWB and appreciates the help and advice she has received from them. She gives back by mentoring and promoting women-owned businesses, in addition to being an angel investor for women-led companies.

Sheila’s non-traditional career path including stints in archaeology, business, running a charter yacht in the Caribbean, teaching, and running and selling her own business, brings a unique perspective to the CWB Advisory Board, having achieved most things in her life by starting a challenge with little idea how I would accomplish it.

Shauna Frederick, CPA, FEA

Shauna is a sought-after financial literacy educator, entrepreneur, and fractional CFO. As the founder of Frederick OTG and co-founder of The Finance Cafe, she helps business owners simplify their financials, build confidence with the numbers, and make informed decisions. Through her podcast and advisory work, Shauna is changing the conversation around money and empowering entrepreneurs to lead financially resilient businesses.

Shauna was inspired to join the board through her commitment to financial empowerment as a pathway to economic resilience for women entrepreneurs. As a CPA, entrepreneur, and advisor, Shauna has seen how financial confidence can change the trajectory of a business. Through her work with The Finance Cafe and Frederick OTG, Shauna has supported entrepreneurs in building financial clarity and strategic growth and hopes to bring this perspective to the board and contribute expertise in financial sustainability, revenue diversification, and operational planning to help the CWB grow its impact and long-term resilience.

Corrie Melanson

Corrie combines more than 25 years’ facilitation experience with visual tools to facilitate breakthrough conversations that spark engaged action and learning. She excels at designing, facilitating, and evaluating dynamic learning and change processes that build on individual and organizational strengths. Corrie uses proven principles of adult education, universal design, and culturally responsive practices to build inclusion, and create engagement, possibility, and collective action.

In addition to an undergrad in international development and a Master’s in Lifelong Learning., Corrie holds certificates in Adult Education, Facilitation, Appreciative Inquiry, Conflict Resolution, Participatory Evaluation, Equity and DIversity and Graphic Facilitation. In 2011, Corrie co-founded Rainbow Refugees Association of Nova Scotia (RRANS), an organization that supports and privately sponsors LGBTQ+ refugees.

Corrie brings unique experiences as a queer, neurodivergent business owner from Nova Scotia.

Susan Trenholm, PhD

Dean of Professional and Graduate Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University, Susan brings a global perspective and a passion for equity in education. With 20 years of experience spanning government, the private sector, and academia- including leadership roles at King’s College London – she is deeply committed to expanding access to learning. A proud MSVU alumna, Susan joins the board with a belief in education as a catalyst for inclusive growth and is actively engaged in research through the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub.

Emma Scott

Emma is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at TalentMinded, Canada’s first company to offer Talent Acquisition as a Service through a subscription-based model. Since launching TalentMinded in 2014, Emma has led the growth of the company from the ground up, overseeing business operations, client delivery, human resources, and finance. With more than two decades of experience in recruitment, she has worked with global consultancies, high-growth startups, and enterprise organizations to design and implement scalable, performance-driven hiring strategies.

Emma is passionate about making hiring better for everyone involved by combining data, technology, and automation to create more efficient, equitable, and engaging experiences for candidates and hiring teams alike.

She joined the advisory board for the Centre for Women in Business out of a deep passion for supporting other women in business, and a strong belief that community and collaboration are key to building profitable, sustainable companies.